Taste the Country
Ontario camping the smell of vinegar saliva in my mouth French fries blistering hot under the summer sun dust them with salt steam in my mouth yellow cardboard boat oil stained in spots potato crumbs a deep fried waffle with ice cream inside the hotdogs the hotdogs too numerous to count so many roasted over a fire so many boiled in a pot diced in macaroni and cheese not too much milk burgers and all form minced beef buns buns and pass the bread and toast for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch and pass the bread and pasta for dinner and buns and buns I like buns the iceberg lettuce and the field tomatoes onion cut so thick meat rare and juicy dripping sauce napkin waking to bacon and indigestion the smell of the woods and the bacon and the sun outside the tent the bacon is sizzling the toast is keeping warm hash browns sausages too scrambled eggs and for the brave a jar of pickled herring eyeing the jar I want one I will go first my queasiness will go away if I can salt vinegar pickling spice brine skin crispy cold next to the ice juicy no gag my stomach settling something more acidic is there now my senses come back I regain an honest hunger and sneak toast before the official breakfast time the trees I stand under know about waiting in the summer they’re laughing they’re getting all they need in the winter they get kicked down and they wait on till spring as best they can hoping for a warm winter